Addis Hosts Three Market Halls

Addis Abeba is going to get three market halls constructed for a total of 82 million Br. The halls, which are designated for food items, are expected to be operational beginning June 2, 2018, in Aqaqi-Qality, Kolfe and Nifas Silk districts.

They are the first three of eight market halls financed by the City’s Trade & Industry Bureau to be constructed in the capital. Except for the hall located in Aqaqi-Qality, that is designed to accommodate a livestock market; the other two have three-story buildings. The halls will have parking areas, cafeterias, restaurants and clinics.

“The main goal is to realise the delivery of fast, convenient and fair service to consumers,” said Solomon Bekele, head of the administrative team at the Bureau.

The Aqaqi-Qality district market hall costs over 34 million Br and rests on 21,000sqm area. The market hall is designed for the livestock market. It was constructed by the local firm Tamirat Temesgen Construction Plc, which has over a decade of experience contracting university buildings and condominiums.

The market hall at Kolfe district was constructed for 23 million Br, lying on a 3,200sqm area and will specialise in fruit and vegetable markets. The local decade-old firm, Bianco Construction, was the contractor and took two years to complete.

The Nifas Silk district’s market hall cost 25 million Birr, sits on a 6,000sqm area and took two years to complete. It will also be used as a fruit and vegetable market. The mall is constructed by Kassahun Zerihun Construction Plc, an 11-year-old local company. The hall is a four-story building that houses cafeterias, restaurants and two meeting spaces.

The three malls were designed, constructed and supervised by the city’s Construction Bureau, which is responsible for the designs, supervisions and follow-ups of the capital’s construction activities.

With the market halls expected to be opened early next month, the districts are currently in the process of identifying wholesalers and retailers that have interest in participating, according to Solomon.

“The Bureau is working hard to solve wholesale and retail space shortages, and these market halls will be a great help in meeting that demand,” Solomon told Fortune.

Previously, the bureau constructed a market hall in Aqaqi Qality at the cost of eight million Br, which serves as a marketplace for vegetables and fruits as well.

“It is smart to create a centralised marketplace,” Alazar Ahmed, a marketing expert who has worked for over 16 years says. “But it would have been better had the halls addressed the manufacturing industry instead of just food items.”

He also believes that it will play a part in formalising the informal market that the capital is grappling with.

A report from the World Bank, which was released this month, also stressed that the services sub-sector has various challenges.

A high degree of informality, poor access to finance, explicit trade barriers that fragment markets and supply chains, non-tariff barriers related to standards and rules of origin, poor infrastructure, and limited market data are the main challenges of the services sub-sector.

Food inflation that has been in the double-digits is attributed to the devaluation of the Birr against a basket of major currencies and political unrests.